I'm actually reading a newer translation than the old favorite that's been around for a century+. The old standard was translated by Agnes Kinloch Kingston. The one I'm reading is a 2001 edition translated by Jordan Stump. It's a bit different from the version (Kingston's) that I read as a child. It's more closer to Verne's original.

[Redactor’s Note: The Mysterious Island (Number V013 in the T&M numerical listing of Verne’s works) is a translation of L’Île mystérieuse first published in England by Sampson and Low and in the United States by Scribner and Henry L. Shepard using the same translation of W. H. G. Kingston. English translators often altered their translations to suit current political views of Church and Empire. In the Kingston translation the chapters near the end of the book where Captain Nemo makes his appearance are altered beyond all recognition and all mention of Captain Nemo’s previous life as a “freedom fighter” for Indian independence is removed, in addition to other deletions. The present translation is by the American Stephen W. White. It first appeared in the Evening Telegraph of Philadelphia, PA and was later published as an Evening Telegraph Reprint Book (1876). The present version is prepared from a xerox copy of that book kindly provided by Mr. Sidney Kravitz of Dover, NJ. According to Taves and Michaluk “Although more faithful than any other translation, this one has never been reprinted”. And so after a lapse of 127 years this translation of The Mysterious Island is now again available to the public.

Since the text was hand set for a newspaper there are many printer’s errors (including upside-down characters). Where obvious these have been corrected, although an attempt has been made to retain the original spelling of words in use at that period. Where there is a doubt, words have been altered so that the spelling is consistent. In other cases, like “trajopan” where the inconsistency is traced to Verne’s original, the spelling is left unaltered. A table of contents based on the chapter headings has been added which also indicates the points at which the french version was divided into three parts. An updated translation by Sidney Kravitz is now available from Wesleyan University Press (2001).
In a text of this length there are bound to be some errors. The redactor (Norman M. Wolcott, 2003) welcomes corrections of these at nwolcott2@post.harvard.edu . ]

Very interesting about the political views of Church and Empire of the day.

Think I would definitely like to read one that still has Nemo's previous life, as in the original by Verne, as a Freedom Fighter for "Indian Independence". I really hate it when they take such licenses with translations.

Read Stump's Translator's Preface (beginning on p.28) --> http://www.scribd.co...sterious-Island <-- It's interesting. He talks about Nemo and how previous translators had changed Verne's view of him in their translations.

I am currently reading Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series. I am on Book 1, simply entitled Foundation as linked below. The Foundation Series:

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The Foundation Series is a science fiction series by Isaac Asimov. There are seven volumes in the Foundation Series proper, which in its in-universe chronological order arePrelude to Foundation, Forward the Foundation, Foundation, Foundation and Empire,Second Foundation, Foundation's Edge, and Foundation and Earth.
The premise of the series is that mathematician Hari Seldon spent his life developing a branch of mathematics known as psychohistory, a concept of mathematical sociology(analogous to mathematical physics). Using the laws of mass action, it can predict the future, but only on a large scale; it is error-prone on a small scale. It works on the principle that the behaviour of a mass of people is predictable if the quantity of this mass is very large (equal to the population of the galaxy, which has a population of quadrillionsof humans, inhabiting millions of star systems). The larger the number, the more predictable is the future.
Using these techniques, Seldon foresees the imminent fall of the Galactic Empire, which encompasses the entire Milky Way, and a dark age lasting thirty thousand years before a second great empire arises. Seldon's psychohistory also foresees an alternative where the intermittent period will last only one thousand years. To ensure his vision of a second great Empire comes to fruition, Seldon creates two Foundations—small, secluded havens of all human knowledge—at "opposite ends of the galaxy".
The focus of the series is on the First Foundation and its attempts to overcome various obstacles during the formation and installation of the Second Empire, all the while being silently guided by the unknown specifics of The Seldon Plan.
The series is best known for the Foundation Trilogy, which comprises the booksFoundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation. While the term "Foundation Series" can be used specifically for the seven Foundation books, it can also be used more generally to include the Robot series (four novels) and Empire series (three novels), which are set in the same fictional universe, but in earlier time periods. If all works are included, in total, there are fourteen novels and dozens of short stories written by Asimov, and seven novels written by other authors after his death, expanding the time spanned in the original trilogy (roughly 550 years) by more than twenty thousand years. The series is highly acclaimed, and the Foundation Trilogy won the one-time Hugo Awardfor "Best All-Time Series" in 1966.[1]

Oh, by the way, I'm going to lose my Cory Doctorow virginity starting this evening. I have Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town sitting on the desk right next to me. It will be my first Cory D. book. I grabbed it when I was at the library the other day. I remember you recommending him pretty highly. I'm looking forward to cracking the cover in a bit.

My favorites of his are his short stories, like Craphound, the shorts about technology, and the novels, Little Brother, which won awards and Makers. I also have Pirate Cinema which has also won awards. I look forward to reading it very soon too.

Haven't read the the one you are reading yet. Let me know what you think of it.

Kubla Khan is a poem written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, completed in 1797 and published in 1816. According to Coleridge's Preface to Kubla Khan, the poem was composed one night after he experienced an opium influenced dream after reading a work describing Xanadu, the summer palace of the Mongol ruler and Emperor of China Kublai Khan. Upon waking, he set about writing lines of poetry that came to him from the dream until he was interrupted by a person from Porlock. The poem could not be completed according to its original 200-300 line plan as the interruption caused him to forget the lines. He left it unpublished and kept it for private readings for his friends until 1816 when, on the prompting by George Gordon Byron, it was published.

The 9000 series is the most reliable computer ever made. No 9000 computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information. We are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error. - HAL-9000

You know, this used to be a helluva good country. I don't understand what's gone wrong with it. - George Hanson, 1969

Coleridge also wrote The Rime Of the Ancient Mariner, which seems a bit drug induced.

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Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

These guys loved their (perfectly legal) opium.

The 9000 series is the most reliable computer ever made. No 9000 computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information. We are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error. - HAL-9000

You know, this used to be a helluva good country. I don't understand what's gone wrong with it. - George Hanson, 1969

The website might not be terribly impressive or polished, but they have an extensive selection of books ranging from reference materials to fiction novels. You can find some absolute gems on this site, but be aware that you may come across some broken links on occasion: please report them if and when you do.

Plenty of great books, some very recent. Along with audio books and vids.

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